A Propos de Moi (About Me)

I am a bisexual woman with a passion for sex, music and baseball, in that order. Please note that the reference to sex is neither an invitation nor an advertisement; it’s simply my belief that you should know who you’re dealing with.

More to the point, I am a lifelong music lover who has explored and studied many forms of music, with a particular interest in the history of popular (i. e., non-classical) music dating back to the 1920’s, the early stages of commercial recording. Music has been a large part of my life since childhood—both parents are serious music aficionados who kept the stereo going day and night, and I went through years of training on piano and flute, in both jazz and classical styles. In my teens I immersed myself in punk and taught myself to play guitar, primarily to make noise. I’ve studied to some degree the history and the content of blues, jazz, folk, country, pop, and, most of all, rock ‘n’ roll in its various forms. I find the evolution of music fascinating, whether it’s “How did the music of Louis Armstrong turn into the music of Miles Davis?” or “How did John Lennon write ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ only three or four years after he wrote ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand?'”

Since early 2012 I have translated my passion for music into what you see on this blog: reviews of classic and contemporary popular music. The original intent of the blog was to support new artists in their efforts to get noticed; over time the blog morphed into more of an exploration of music history due to the poor quality of contemporary music.

When I write my reviews I often integrate experiences and stories from my personal life, so you might find a little background helpful.

I was born in San Francisco in 1981, grew up there, went to college in L. A., then after a brief period back in The City, I lived in Seattle for a while. I moved to Paris in April 2013 on a relocation sponsored by my former employer and wound up as their Director of European Operations for a couple of years. Go fucking figure. They asked me to come back to Seattle and take a role in the executive suite (which I politely declined); in exchange they showed me the door and gave me a nice departure package so I could move near my family in Nice. I am fortunate enough to have a French mother who taught me the language and secured dual citizenship for me before I could walk. My parents relocated to Nice when they retired last year, and my partner and I have a little house within a half-kilometer of theirs. Maman and Dad make frequent appearances in my reviews because they know music and have lots of opinions about music that are sometimes at odds with mine.

I would describe myself as very independent and self-confident with a ravenous appetite for learning. I am afflicted with the usual insecurities but nothing serious. I am very sociable but I insist on doing things that many people consider anti-social like smoking cigarettes (about which I feel no guilt) and jacking off in public (which I do very discreetly to relieve tension). I am not religious and have no interest in it whatsoever. I have a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations (minor in French, of course) and a Master’s in International Business. I have a full-time job that involves a lot of travel within the EU and Quebec. I’m fluent in English and French, near-fluent in Spanish, trying to improve my German and seriously suck in Italian. My Myers-Briggs type is ENTJ:

ENTJs are among the rarest of types, accounting for about 2–5% of those who are formally tested. They tend to be self-driven, motivating, energetic, assertive, confident, and competitive. They generally take a big-picture view and build a long-term strategy. They typically know what they want and may mobilize others to help them attain their goals. ENTJs are often sought out as leaders due to an innate ability to direct groups of people. Unusually influential and organized, they may sometimes judge others by their own tough standards, failing to take personal needs into account. From Wikipedia.

Consistent with that profile and adding a bit of spice to my bisexual orientation, I am a dominant female with an ingrained preference for what is referred to sadomasochism or BDSM. This is also not an invitation to anything, but will explain the curious comments that pop up every now and then in my posts and the sexual reactions I have to certain music. The site used to feature erotic tales and several graphic pictures of me from three erotic photo shoots, but I decided they were becoming a distraction. All the pictures you see on this blog are the real me, now fully-clothed.

Because I pull from so many different genres and styles, you’ll find the blog to be quite eclectic, but the majority of the posts cover rock and its variants. I originally chose “Alt Rock” for use in my pen name because it was the least offensive genre available in our classification-obsessed culture, but now I’ve become fond of it because it has multiple meanings due to my distinctly alternative lifestyle and off-the-beaten-path perspectives on music.

My musical tastes are personal, as are all musical tastes. I have no pretensions that I am the almighty judge of musical excellence. What appears on this blog are my opinions, nothing more. I respect your right to think differently and encourage you to state your case in the comments section—hopefully without getting nasty about it.

I’m hard to classify, but when I write my reviews, I put everything I have into them. I hope you enjoy my work and comment to your heart’s content!